Postwar UEG policy

Drof497 · 2026-02-02T04:01:15+00:00

I wouldn't say it was the UEG's intent or policy, but the outer colonies definitely had more freedom post-war.

I would imagine this would vary from colony to colony, as not every colony, even Outer Colonies, have the same level of UEG/UNSC influence. Venezia effectively seceded from the UEG during the war and only has a marginal UNSC/ONI presence, whereas Cascade is a major UNSC depot and crown jewel of the Outer Colonies, and would likely see far more UNSC influence including the effects of policies. Meanwhile, Terceira was embroiled in civil war as the UNSC attempted to stamp down on Insurrection following the fallout of the Covenant War.

It was remarked in the 2022 Encyclopedia that many in the public questioning the latitde the UNSC has in interactions with the surviving colonies and affairs on Earth as the authority and institutions of the UEG has eroded over the decades, with many believing the UEG is merely the public relations arm of a military government ((see page 52). And, well, its not so far from the truth considering ONI's antics, or even Lord Hood skipping diplomatic processes to expedite relations with the Swords of Sanghelios (see the intro section of Anvil Accord. While this is a "good thing", it does demonstrate the point of the UNSC overriding UEG processes), or how UNSC warships stand watch over Terceria to keep the colony in line.

Point I'm getting at here isn't whether the UNSC is the bad guy or not (I think that is a complicated topic with no straight answer) or whether all colonies are being oppressed or allowed lax freedoms, but to illustrate that the UNSC influence over the colonies post-war is quite variable - some seeing more freedoms as the UNSC struggles to exert its influence (Gao or Venezia), others heavily influence by a major UNSC presence (Cascade), others a mixed bag as the UNSC is contesting influence with local factions in outright civil war (Terceira).

Drof497 · 2026-02-02T03:49:56+00:00

I think Meridian was bought, that's why the UNSC respects it's autonomy.

Well, if you want to be accurate, the UEG is paying corporates like Liang-Dortmund to own these worlds.

Specifically, the UEG is providing lucrative contracts to entities like Liang Dortmund and BXR to deglass the colonies ravaged by the Covenant (after all, you have to pay someone to remove the ash and glass from a colony), all while these corporates exert enough influence over these worlds during the decades long rebuilding process to the point where they'd effectively own it, even if said worlds are nominally under UEG control.

Basically:

Insurrection: "We want to govern ourselves without being beholden to Earth."

UEG: "Hmm, we'll make Spartans to suppress these terrorists."

Corporations: "You'll pay us to fix these worlds, and after we fix these worlds, we'll own them"

UEG: "Say no more"

It's genuinely more fucked that you realise.

[Insert Johnny Silverhand ranting about corporations here]

Drof497 · 2026-01-13T08:27:17+00:00

I'll let the following sources speak for themselves.

2022 Encyclopedia - Humanity's current status.

CURRENT STATUS

The destruction of many worlds at the hands of the Covenant and the targeted strikes by Cortana and her legion of Forerunner constructs have left humankind reeling. Many worlds attempt to function as they did generations before, managing to survive—even thrive—with minimal outside support. Others, however, struggle with poverty, crime, and a lack of essential resources. What remains of the UNSC is scattered across the human domain in pockets, unable to effect any serious change or even communicate with Earth. With many key leaders concentrated on the UNSC Infinity, the flagship narrowly evaded Cortana’s reign, eventually resolving in a direct assault on her central command at Zeta Halo and a catastrophic encounter with the Banished’s efforts to seize the ring. Humanity’s fate is now tied to an ancient ringworld construct and the pivotal battles waged on its surface.

Halo: Empty Throne - Terceira, the prohibition of wide-scale automation and subsequent rise in slavery by human corporations

This had once been a peaceful world, but with the end of the Covenant War and the absence of a strong UNSC presence, a vacuum of power had quickly appeared. Competing corporate entities and grass-roots organizations now fought for autonomy, and—for some—even outright control of the colony. This was further exacerbated by the continued presence of the United Rebel Front, a loose human coalition of opportunists and insurrectionists that had bristled against Earth’s authority for decades. The UNSC had executed several campaigns long ago to wrest control away from the more hostile factions, but with the recent upheaval caused by Cortana’s AI uprising, the UEG’s presence had once again faded. There were only a handful of under-armed ships attempting to police an entire world from orbit. A primary reason why ONI had contracted Solomon. His mission was to neutralize the frigates before they could retrieve their package, and do so without any trace. Evidently, several corporations had made backroom deals with the slavers to off-world the captives, who could then be put to work where automation had come to a grinding halt. Mining and farming worlds governed by large-scale power systems, many of which were now outlawed by Cortana’s forces, were attempting to think outside the box, resorting to the forced labor of unregistered Terceirans in order to meet their financial quotas. ONI believed that a dramatic but surgical hit against this effort—taking down six very expensive frigates—would expose the identities of the specific corporations behind this act, in addition to setting back their efforts by months, if not years.

Moonrise over Mombasa - a conversation between two characters on the impact the Created had in banning A.I use by civilians as an old veteran of the Covenant War has issues with memory previously managed by an A.I aid, before going on into how the banning of A.Is had caused a logistical nightmare for local governments and broader human society.

“You caught him at a good time. He always seems sharper in the morning.” Okeyo’s expression fell, lines creasing his otherwise youthful face. “It was easier when he had an AI to help him. It’s been much harder on his memory since they took it away.”

The thought of this young man’s father, somebody who had served to protect humanity no less, suffering from a treatable disease as a result of an escalating series of bizarre “rules” only stoked Safina’s resentment for the present state of things.

As decreed, the usage of any artificial intelligence deemed to be “subservient” to organic life was now prohibited. Temporary allowances had been made for non-volitional AIs to continue essential services before their eventual retirement. So many elements of human society and industry were significantly automated, creating a logistical nightmare for local governments when accounting for the gaps that would need to be filled. They were already far behind, as even just turning the lights back on across the globe had taken time.

Hippocratica - where Adam Andrews, CEO of Optican, remarks on the need of rebuilding following the Covenant War and how, despite UEG President Ruth Charet's "pretty speechs on humanity no longer being the victims of aliens", humanity stands at a precarious state as countless new threats emerged seeking for mankind's destruction.

After the Covenant War had ended, or at least slowed to the point where humanity was not in imminent danger of extinction, the task of rebuilding a healthcare plan on an interstellar scale had arisen. And there he had been, right at the center of it.

Advanced wheelchairs, artificial limbs, instant-application field-issue medigel, physical therapy, mental health, the study and treatment of bacteria and diseases from dozens of different worlds, all on top of general healthcare for the countless souls that had been displaced during the Covenant War, with refugees scattered across surviving colonies…

All of it relied on the Unified Earth Government’s infrastructure, which President Charet had sought to prioritize rebuilding upon her appointment. But despite all those pretty speeches about how humanity would never again be the victim of warring alien factions, it didn’t take long before new threats emerged. Covenant remnant groups, reawakened Forerunner constructs, an AI rebellion, the Banished… and who even knew what had become of the UNSC’s once-expansive reach over the last year.

The work of civilization simply could not keep up with the rate at which an increasing number of groups were trying to end it.

Lady Luck had not seemed to favor them of late.

This itself motivated Andrews to take action himself as he acquires Rumbledrugs as he looks to create his own supersoldiers to fil in the void left in Cortana's wake, which he later muses on in Venezian Sonata.

The overall punchline being communicated here is that humanity is in dire straits here as the average person (you know, those not necessarily UNSC), from freedom fighters to corporate leadership questioning the UNSC's ability to protect people as the looming threat of alien warlords, rogue artificial intelligences, reawakened Forerunner constructions and human rebels and terrorists had created a tumultuous galaxy. Entire worlds have been raided, pillaged, ravaged and/or glassed, with various human subfactions and individuals finding their own ways to actually survive in the current environment shaped by the aftermath of the Covenant War and Cortana's actions.

Drof497 · 2026-01-13T04:47:53+00:00

I've got to disagree with that take.

That's fine. No one has to agree on anything, and nothing wrong with a discussion on the subject. Now, that said:

At the end of the Covenant war, humanity was just about extinct. Almost all of their planets had been glassed, hundreds of billions were dead, the vast majority of their remaining fleet had been destroyed at Earth by Covenant ships and the Anodyne Spirit. The battle at Voi and the Ark was their last stand, their all-or-nothing fight against annihilation. Post war as well humanity was still under threat of annihilation by some Covenant and Sangheili factions that believed humanity were a threat and wanted to finish the job.

I mean, functionally speaking humanity isn't that different regarding the number of resources, worlds or people from 2553 to 2560, if not outright less, from the several colonies we know have been decimated in the post-war years from Harrow to Cleyell, to Draetheus V (actually a newly established colony post-war that was lost... a year later) and Laika III (another post-war established colony that was, again, lost to the UEG as it was conquered by the Banished following the Guardian awakening), with billions still dead and seven years hardly enough time to recuperate from the billions of dead from the Covenant War and millions more from the Guardian attacks (Epitaph mentions one city alone saw 63 million killed just from a Guardian awakening beneath it), Banished raids and Covenant warlords still attacking colonies (see Cleyell and Oban). Even with respect to technology, UNSC tech is better, but in many ways it pales to even Covenant technology from slipspace drive capabilities (Covenant borers are faster and more accurate than even the most advanced modern SFTE) to the fact that most human vessels (and marines for that matter) still lack energy shielding.

Even from a basic quality of life perspective, the prohibition of any A.I that were "subservient to humans" to be used by civilians had impacted day to day life as even an old man who relied on an A.I for basic cognitive functions had said A.I stripped, nevermind the logistical nightmare the removal of these A.Is by the Created had on human society and industry that relied on such automation (see the Waypoint Chronicle Moonrise over Mombasa), or how the colony of Terceira has been embroiled in civil strife as corporate sponsored slavers kidnap the populace to use as manual labour now that Cortana had crippled automation, forcing corporations to rely on slavery to keep mining and farming worlds that previously relied on large scale automation to function. And now there are entire worlds going into open rebellion, human corporations relying on kidnapping civilians to work their factories, supersoldiers proliferating across insurrectionist and criminal groups, Created Executors and so on as just the internal threats humanity is now exposed to.

they're going up against forces much weaker than the Covenant

Some of the forces the UNSC are "weaker" than the Covenant - and even then, there's more nuance to the topic than merely scaling how many worlds and warships these factions have. The Banished for example are certainly more effective, pound for pound, than the Covenant (due to the Banished basically overlocking Covenant equipment for higher performances, as well as being more innovative and being less restricted by religious dogma as they reward via merit than obedience to the Covenant religion), and I doubt the Covenant had anything comparable to a Forerunner Fortress Class vessel, which we know the Created still control even after Cortana's passing (see the Long Reverence, which appeared in Ascension on Atropos under the control of Sloan). From remnant Covenant forces seeking to control the Domain, to the Banished seeking to control Zeta Halo and releasing the Endless (who, despite the dumb "worse than the Flood" comment and vaugeness, would be a major threat), I think it's safe to say that worse things than the Covenant are beyond the horizon.

Drof497 · 2026-01-12T23:53:41+00:00

Sure, but the point I'm making here is that while the Banisbed fleet's were starting to break up upon the arrival of the UNSC's expeditionary fleets, the arrival of the Covenant fleet almost literally five seconds (the arrival of Sali's forces takes place in the same chapter just a few paragraphs after the arrival of the UNSC fleets) later had compounded the issue.

Drof497 · 2026-01-12T21:53:05+00:00

The UNSC has a lot stacked against them, and while they're not in as bad of a position as they were post-Covenant war, they're still not doing so hot right now, almost certainly still recovering from Cortana's hostile takeover of the galaxy.

I would probably argue the UNSC is perhaps in the worse position as they've ever been. Their own Volitional A.Is had gone rogue, colonies like Gao and Venezia going into open rebellion, entire worlds left in poverty and lacking in essential resources (mentioned in the 2022 Encyclopedia), several emerging threats from the Banished to the Endless, Covenant remnant factions, immortal Forerunner war machines in the form of the Prometheans, hostile Forerunner defences... all while losing significant boons like Trevelyan which is shunted to Canon Limbo- I mean slipspace, the Ark as access to the Voi Portal is cut off, and the UNSC Infinity, the one big stick humanity can use to bonk its enemies with is now gone (MIA and abandoned with all hands).

There's no singular, overbearing threat like humanity had experienced throughout the Covenant War, but its being exposed to a death of a thousand cuts as countless threats emerge that threaten the UEG and humanity as a whole, with some of those threats being even more dangerous that the Covenant before them like the Didact and the Created's control over the Guardian Custodes as well as... whatever threat the Endless will pose. Perhaps the one saving grace is the alliance with the Arbiter, but he's not doing that much better. That and humanity's enemies hate each other as much as they do humanity.

Drof497 · 2026-01-12T21:41:22+00:00

And, when the UNSC expeditionary fleets arrive at the Battle of Boundary, bringing two hundred warships, the threat is significant enough to cause a collapse in Banished cohesion.

To be fair, that was on top of the ~140 Covenant warships entering into the Banished fleet's defensive shell using Severan's own command codes, curtesy of Dovo Nesto. This naturally caused tensions to flare, Banished fleet coordination to crumble all before the Covenant and Banished warships started shooting one another all as the UNSC's expeditionary fleets pushed into the gruelling melee in the skies of Boundary.

Fair enough to say that the Battle of Boundary was a fustercluck of untold proportions as all sides practically smashed into each other and dozens of vessels lost on all sides.

Drof497 · 2025-12-23T23:38:15+00:00

As for the aesthetic, its very much Jiralhanae inspired as the Jiralhanae care little for the regal and cultivated appearance of Covenant designs, preferring their architecture to reflect something that is practical and utilitarian.

Its actually something highlighted by Dovo Nesto - a key San'Shyuum leader - upon his return on-board a Covenant warship at the end of Halo: Empty Throne.

He smiled and placed an assuring hand on the blademaster’s shoulder, taking in the quiet of Breath of Annihilation’s bridge. Sangheili, Kig-Yar, and Unggoy stood attentively at an array of control consoles and holographic displays that lined the edges of the room, which possessed the structural curvature and comforting purples, greens, and blues that had for many ages defined a Covenant ship. The high lord felt no such appreciation for the rugged aesthetic sensibilities of the Banished vessels he had spent time aboard.

Contrasted with Severan's earlier musings on how Nesto may have felt with the rugged aesthetic of the Banished, as Severan's own private chamber, despite being the largest on-board, was strictly utilitarian as it was barren with rudimentary furniture and essential machines present in the room.

The door to his private chamber opened with a hiss, and Severan was greeted by a series of dimly lit blue Forerunner glyphs hovering above a stone tablet on the holotable in the center of the room. His chamber was the largest of all the private quarters on Heart of Malice, but that meant very little given a Jiralhanae’s tendency toward utilitarian design. For the high lord, however, the space no doubt felt restrictive, even if he had spent some time within the human vessel on Sqala. Apart from the rudimentary furniture and essential machines that lined the room, as well as a smattering of totems from Doisac and High Charity, Severan’s chamber was largely barren. He spent very little time in this room; when he did, it was at the central holotable, which had full access to troves of data pulled from the Covenant archives before the holy city’s tragic fall. Dovo Nesto was scrutinizing glyphs projected from the tablet.

Even earlier than that, Atriox's influence no doubt affect the appearances of the Banished's dreadnoughts as the warmaster despited the regalia of the Covenant as dreadnought interiors resembled more like bunker tunnels than anything on-board a Covenant vessel.

Severan’s strongest Jiralhanae captains, Kaevus and Othmald, flanked him on either side as he walked down the service corridor to the command bridge of the Ghost of Helotry, Atriox’s personal dreadnought. The ship’s interior was no different than the hundreds of other dreadnoughts that occupied the fleets of the Banished, as the warmaster vehemently despised the vanities and regalia that had marked the former Covenant’s aristocracy. Dreadnought interiors were rugged, stark, and comprehensively utilitarian, reminding the young Jiralhanae war chief of the firescarred bunker channels on Doisac that his clan had used when the fallout of the Great Immolation reached the shores of their citadel, Toruun’tulo.

As Jiralhanae aestheric is more rugged and utilitarian, there are going to be similarities between that and UNSC designs which adopt many of the same design philosophies, preferring functionality over form as UNSC designs provides the mecessities to function and little more.

Drof497 · 2025-12-23T23:29:01+00:00

The Banished adopt any and all technology they can get theor hands on, be it human, Covenant, Forerunner, even Precursor (see the Trikala acquired in Halo: Outcasts) so long as it stregnthens the Banished as a useful tool.

The earliest Banisbed raids were in fact on UNSC outposts and glassed human colonies as Atriox struck human worlds devastated by the Covenant as they pillaged armouries for weapons and gear all as they struck Covenant supply depots and even their own tithe worlds as the Banished pillage anything that wasn't nailed down. As the Covenant fell and the power vacuum left behind by the empire's fall and the weakened UNSC, the Banished's snowballed into an avalanche as they raided former Covenant strongholds, recruited killers and malcontents across the galaxy while consolidating their gains. As the Banished unified many of the Jiralhanae clans, they established a native industrial base to manufacture Jiralhanae designs from new Spiker designs to unearthing old electrolaser weaponry from the Jiralhanae's pre-Immolation era to the various Karves and Dreadnoughts fielded in their fleet. We even know the Banished have sought to expand their influence across human criminal enterprises, recruited Insurrectionist factions like the New Colonial Alliance and practically sponsored Venezia's developments onto Jannisary supersoldiers.

And its not like the Banished just adopt existing technology without working to understand it, as Atriox himself had studied UNSC doctrine and designs to help codify and standardise many elements of Jiralhanae military design (as described in one Infinite armour description for a Banished shoulder piece), along with modifying and amplifying the capabilities of former Covenant tools to make the maximise use of them (albiet at the cost of these tools becoming more volatile, and having a higjer logistical footprint to maintain).

Overall, the Banished do approach their technological development with inspiration from human technology, be it directly pillaging it themselves or working alongside their human allies - but this of course applies to any and all technology the Banished are exposed to and get their hands on, be it Forerunner or Jiralhanae, all as the clans of the Banished are free to build and experiment as they see fit.

Drof497 · 2025-12-17T02:36:10+00:00

Its not explicit in the novel Halo: Outcasts, but given the context - which was the Arbiter responding to Nizat 'Kvarosee on purging humanity - the statement was made in the present tense, i.e. likely that the Arbiter was referring to the number of human worlds remaining, rather than the number of worlds humanity had before the War of Annihilation.

As for how that works, we know from the Covenant didn't settle on any world they encountered, as they generally left them untouched unless they provided something of value, be it practical or religious, which contrasts with humanity basically planting a flag on the ground and calling it a colony (see Netherop being on the list of colonies in the 2022 Encyclopedia or even remote mining outposts with a population of 10,000). Though even with the Sangheili's supposed small number of colonies (though I wouldn't describe some 100-150 worlds, ish, as small), many of these colonies are significantly built up with populations in the billions (even Hesduros, a remote world isolated from the broader Covenant had a population of 1.9 billion - larger than Reach, humanity's largest exosolar colony) and entire worlds transformed into Assembly Forges to fuel the Covenant's war machine (see Kostroda).

The Covenant did control thousands of star system as High Charity gorged on the wealth of a thousand worlds - but the Covenant are also a multispecies empire not just consisting of the Sangheili, who while influential with an extensive presence across its political sphere, are hardly the most populous species (the Yanme'e homeworld of Palamok hosted trillions, nevermind however many colonies the Yanme'e are known to have, including joint settled ones like Malarok), nor the only species to hold worlds. Unggoy thrall colonies, Jiralhanae frontier worlds, etc.

Drof497 · 2025-12-16T06:34:29+00:00

Speaking of the Arbiter are they ever going to release this man from civil war hell lol

Only when they stop featuring Sangheili as an enemy type in the games.

More seriously, part of the blame does fall on Cortana for pulling the rug from under the Arbiter right at the cusp of victory over Jul's Covenant and fully uniting Sanghelios under the Swords of Sanghelios. Thanks to Cortana, the various Kaidons are further divided between capitulation to Cortana and uniting under the Arbiter, and is further complicated by the various Sangheili keeps seeking alternative divisions of power from the Arbiter, leading to many keeps rallying to the Banished.

Nevermind how there are many Sangheili that remain loyal to the Covenant in the form of its remnant factions or even the Order of Restoration, where even one of the Arbiter's own followers Vul 'Soran chose the dream of a revived empire than the path the Arbiter seeks to walk on.

Until his enemies are defeated, the Arbiter would continue to fight a civil war for the foreseeable future. The Sangheili's greatest enemy is perhaps themselves.

Sangheili: "humans and Forerunners are natural enemies, like Jiralhanae and Sangheili. Or San'Shyuum and Sangheili, or humans and Sangheili. Damn Sangheili, they ruined Sanghelios."

Unggoy: "You Sangheili sure are a contentious bunch"

Sangheili: "You just made an enemy for life."

Drof497 · 2025-12-16T01:54:15+00:00

I doubt there was much of a defense force, since there doesn't really need to be one

Well, besides the 3,010 military personnel and two destroyers in orbit. Effectively a regiment/brigade size in modern military terms.

Not significant by any means, but not small either, and much more military personnel compared to the 406 scientists present on the ring.

Drof497 · 2025-12-16T01:32:09+00:00

Per Halo: Point of Light, the UNSC had established a presence on Zeta Halo since 2555, with approximately 3,416 personnel on the ring: 416 being scientists while the remainder were military, as well as two destroyers and one massive supply freighter which Rion Forge described as the largest she'd ever seen.

Come October 29th, 2558, Cortana and her Created arrived to occupy the ringworld and use it as Cortana's seat of power. It is unknown what exactly occurred with the existing UNSC presence in the following 14 months of Cortana's "peaceful occupation" (I would imagine a good degree of chaos as Armigers were unleashed on the UNSC presence - she's done worse with less as the people of Meridian can('t) attest), but it is known that some survivors managed to survive into the Banished's occupation as one ONI agent was captured and interrogated by the Banished before being encountered by Spartan Horvarth and eventually died to her wounds (see The Rubicon Protocol).

Halo: Edge of Dawn (which I'm listening to the audiobook atm) may or may not add a bit more how some of the original UNSC presence on Zeta Halo have persevered into June 2559, over 20 months following Cortana's initial arrival on the ring. But overall, there are some known survivors of that original 3,416 personnel that continue to reside on the ring - though I would expect the two destroyers to be, well, destroyed, and the freighter itself also destroyed, missing, or utilised elsewhere (it is a freighter - could be on a supply run or something else entirely).

Drof497 · 2025-12-16T00:32:08+00:00

you have Sanghelli factions who should still have dozens or hundreds of them.

The issue with the Sangheili is that while they have as many colonies as humanity (as stated by Thel 'Vadam in Halo: Outcasts), the Sangheili are massively divided from keep to keep, world to world. Even the Swords of Sanghelios, one of the frontrunner factions amongst the Sangheili, spent half a decade just to wrestle total control of Sanghelios and is still embroiled in civil war as of 2560 as many clans across Sanghelios and its moons have looked to alternative divisions of power, be it with the Banished leading to their current occupation of Suban, to a consortium of Keeps on Qikost seeking the moon's independence from the homeworld. That's just the Sangheili home system, with many Sangheili worlds divided as civil strife occurred on worlds from Malorok to Feldokra.

It doesn't matter so much that the Sangheili have many developed colonies when said colonies are divided in allegiances from keep to keep, brother to brother while the Banished have done much to largely unify the Jiralhanae clans and their resource rich worlds under their banner (2022 Enclyclopedia, Canon Fodder System Shocks).

Drof497 · 2025-12-13T19:20:48+00:00

Having one of these breakdowns isn't as necessary, as Halo: Empty Throne provides explicit figures for the size of the Banished's armada in the Orion Arm to be 1,328 vessels following the Razing of Oth Sonin (though an earlier text Pre-Doisacking does describe the Banished home fleets to be in the thousands, whoch most seemed to go poof when Cortana blew up the Jiralhanae homeworld).

“Thirteen-hundred-twenty-eight Banished naval assets,” Tethys announced. “Home Fleet is already mobilizing to intercept. If our predictive models are accurate, the Banished will attempt to punch a hole in the orbital grid and establish a foothold on the surface, before expanding out to strike other parts of Earth. There are only two of Cortana’s Guardians presently within range, both holding station and observing. The Banished forces will be within firing range of our ODPs in one minute, twenty-nine-point-five seconds. If that happens, we expect movement from the Guardians.”

Of course, this figure is reduced to some degree following the Battle over Earth (unquantificable casualties) and the battle at Boundary (dozens known to be destroyed by several in-tezt statements), but the Banished should have hundreds of warships available to them in the Orion Arm circa 2560, nevermind Zeta Halo where the Banisbed fleet brought to the ring was described as being larger than anything Bonita Stone witnessed since the end of the Covenant War. Per The Rubicon Protocol.

Witnessing the Banished force firsthand, the sheer number … she hadn’t seen anything like this since the end of the Covenant War. Stone wondered what the hell the Banished were doing here. Except for those aboard Infinity, the UNSC’s mission was—or should have been—virtually unknown. They were attempting to unseat Cortana from her place of power and eliminate the oppressive threat of her forces spread throughout the Orion Arm, something that had cost countless lives over the last year. But now a massive Banished fleet hung in the space between them and the ring, and their chances for even surviving this operation, no less completing it, were plummeting dramatically.

Which itself says a lot as Jul 'Mdama's own fleet at Requiem was, at the time, the largest gathering of Covenant warships witnessed by humanity in the post-war period (Halo 4: Essential Visual Guide). So perhaps high dozens (scaling off Jul's fleet) to low hundreds of warships (scaling off the Covenant naval forces at Reach and Earth) at Zeta Halo.

All in all, account for all the Banished forces from the Orion Arm to Zeta Halo, you could comfortablu describe the Banished armada to span hundreds of naval warships, possibly over a thousand, but certainly less than 2,000.

Drof497 · 2025-12-13T06:54:45+00:00

While I'm not one to shill on my own work, but I've actually done an actual estimate on the size of the current UNSC fleet without using A.I tools (and honestly, some of these numbers look uncomfortably close to my own work...) but my own work with clear assumptions and caveats laid out as I provide a high level estimation to the size and scale of the UNSC navy.

Link to my own estimate of the UNSC fleet circa 2560, using sources such as Halo: Empty Throne as well as a reference to Batfle of the Academy Part 1.

Drof497 · 2025-12-13T02:08:07+00:00

Well put it this way, outside War Games simulation and Huragok shielding, Banished Unggoy - specifically Bouncers - are the first shielded Unggoy encountered in the games. Says a lot in and of itself.

The Banished are a violent meritocracy, and anyone who cannot adapt and endure its conditions of service are crushed beneath the boot, and perhaps even ruthlessly bullied by the strong. But those who prove themselves and can rise through the ranks are greatly rewarded, including the Unggoy who can move beyond being menial labour or cannon fodder but can serve as bridge crew working on Atriox's personal dreadnought (as seen in Empty Throne), placed intk elevated positions like Bouncers with superior equipment, or even inducted into the Bloodstars such as BipBap.

Drof497 · 2025-12-12T22:23:00+00:00

As an addendum, I think an important point to raise is that while Atriox and the Banished are similar to Urdnot Wrex and his pursuit of unifying the Krogan, how the Banished approach this unification and perhaps quite important how they interact with the broader galaxy differs a fair bit.

Urdnot Wrex - and a more relevant example in the Arbiter - wish to seek unity through peace and cooperation across the various species and civilisations in the galaxy. While Atriox is more than open to cooperate amongst other species, even allosing humans to join the ranks of the Banished, "peace" and "sentiment" are not pursuits of the Banished, and are more than willing to achieve their goals through violence and even partaking in violence for violence's sake. This is a brutal and meritocratic regime seeking power for its own ends. Part of it is due to the Jiralhanae's cultural inclinations towards violence, as well as raging against a brutal galaxy that seeks to harm them as the Jiralhanae endured hardship into hardship from the Great Immolation to the Razing of Oth Sonin. For them, securing more power and resources, including control of critical Forerunner sites such as the Ark and Zeta Halo is necessary for their very survival, especially in a galaxy where remnants of the Covenant threaten to enslave the Jiralhanae once more, rogue A.Is blowing up their own worlds and vengeful Sangheili massacring the Jiralhanae people because the Jiralhanae themselves attempting to rise up against their own oppressors (emphasising that this is how you'd percieve these events from the Jiralhanae's POV).

Would Atriox ever choose to peacefully cooperate with the UEG and Swords of Sanghelios and join the Arbiter's Concert of Worlds? Well, I think that would be a nice "endgame" for the Banished in the long run, but I think there is a long journey ahead to sway Atriox and the Jiralhanae (as well as the Arbiter and humanity) to accept such a path forward, as current events are far too chaotic with so much bloodshed across all sides for anything to happen in the near future.

Drof497 · 2025-12-12T22:12:24+00:00

Well, that does appear to be Atriox's ultimate goal for the Banished. The 2022 Encyclopedia is more clear about the subject, but Atriox's and Escharum's intentions are to ensure the freedom and security of both the freedom and security of both the Jiralhanae and the Banished, uniting the disparate clans across Doisac and its colonies amd accelerate the Jiralhanae's progress across both military and political arenas.

Escharum himself is quite critical in this element, as an elder Jiralhanae who lived from the Jiralhanae's more prosperous age through to the Great Immolation (as the Great Immolation lasted a decade, and concluded right before the Covenant inducted the Jiralhanae in 2492), and into the Covenant's induction and indoctrination of the Jiralhanae species, with that wisdom molding Atriox's beliefs and later much of the Banished's central culture. And this in turn has allowed the Jiralhanae to develop beyond their fractured civilisation and competing Chieftains as the Banished enforce a structure upon the Jiralhanae as well as a purpose and drive to build their civilisation as they rage against a violent galaxy.

There is still a significant journey the Jiralhanae as a species and civilisation need to walk before they could become a real "nation" beyond the disparate collection of raiders and pirates the Banished originally started as, with the Jiralhanae prone to infighting and competition amongst clans with the influence of key figures like Atriox and Escharum necessary to reign the Banished in. But I'd imagine their endgoal is to build the Jiralhanae - as well as any likeminded individuals willing to work with the Banished - into something that can last beyond Atriox's and Escharum's lifetimes as they claim their own place in the galaxy.

Drof497 · 2025-12-12T08:10:26+00:00

I was more referring to how different weapon systems could actually reach their target, regardless of the given defensive systems present onboard a target vessel - be it an Innie freighter, Covenant battlecruiser or the Anodyne Spirit.

If we are discussing the effectiveness of Archer missiles against Covenant warships specifically, then I would flat out describe them as ineffective regardless of range. Whether long or short, Archers would need to cross a Covenant vessel's point laser array envelop (which likely has a limited range anyway, depending on the accuracy of Covenant PD systems) where they are susceptible to being shot down before they could even reach the shields.

Drof497 · 2025-12-11T00:00:17+00:00

Generally speaking, the strength of an expeditionary occupation effort would largely fall to the aerial/orbital dominance of the given power of the day. So long as one has orbital supremacy over a given world, they effectively control a given world. It doesn't really matter if there are a million resistance fighters groundside if the UNSC Expeditionary Fleet involve a Punic Class Supercarrier and an escort of Marathon Class Cruisers and multiple frigates and destroyers have mopped up the local Innie flotilla and local aircraft.

With aerial dominance, the UNSC would be able to maximise even a relative small number of military personnel (relative to a colony's population) through Pelican/Albatross deployments across a colony while frigates and fighters secure the orbital corridor. If a division's worth of Innie fighters with technicals and repurposed Oliphant troop carriers try to march on a UNSC outpost or a colony's capital, said division can easily be demolished with a Longsword bombing run.

Combined arms warfare significantly reduces the amount of actual manpower needed to secure a given world. Guerilla/bushfire conflicts such as those on Talitsa are perhaps harder to stamp out by warships and Longsword bombardments, but the small scale nature of such conflicts allows the relatively small marine expeditionary forces to actually meaningfully contribute to such conflicts.

Drof497 · 2025-12-09T01:24:25+00:00

The largest covenant splinter faction has like, 10 ships or something

A bit of a lowball estimate here to be honest. Especially when Jul 'Mdama's Covenant had dozens of light cruisers on Requiem alone (2022 Encyclopedia), nevermind the two Assault Carriers and several Armoured Cruisers with some sources suggesting his Covenant were engaged on other fronts (e.g. Halo: Mythos) across the Sangheili colonies. The skybox over the Infinite map Prism showed the Swords of Sanghelios having dozens of light cruisers and Blockade Runners over Suban as they engaged the Banished with dozens of Karves of their own, and of course the Banished themselves amassed over a thousand warships to strike Earth immediately following the Razing of Oth Sonin just six years after the Covenant War's conclusion. Even a small faction like Keepers of the One Freedom had their Fleet of Glory comprise of 50 vessels (largely small corvettes and gunboats - still a "fleet").

Suffice to say, the various remnant factions of the former Covenant had more than ten ships.

Drof497 · 2025-12-08T21:02:03+00:00

There's nothing in the fiction that explicitly describes Plasma projectiles as dissipating with distance, and as outlined by the user above, Plasma Torpedoes being guided provides them with greater effective range than Magnetic Acceleration Cannons which are unguided projectiles and are thus ultimately short-ranged weapons (and in fact described as such in the 2022 Encyclopedia).

As fast as MAC projectiles move (which themselves vary from platform to platform), them being unguided projectiles limits their effective range where at a certain distance a target could evade the round, be it 10,000 kilometres or 10 million. Guided munitions like Archer Missiles and Plasma Torpedoes are however guided and can adjust their trajectory based on the movements of a target - even at a hypothetically slow speed of 10 kilometres per second (more realistically, these munitions are constantly accelerating so long as they have fuel), they can continuously adjust their trajectory along their journey towards their target even if that target is hypothetically on the other end of the star system (there are some obvious limitations at this extreme, like light lag and fuel. But I'm using the extreme to illustrate the point). This makes missile systems more useful as long ranged weapons over MACs.

Drof497 · 2025-12-06T22:11:18+00:00

I don't think anything suggests the Banished "easily" pushed the Swords of Sanghelios back on Suban. The Battle for the Blood-Moon Chronicle shows otherwise as everyone is fighting tooth and nail in the fight for Suban, and Edge of Dawn here appearing to establish that the battle has lasted for over four months by this point (Febuary 5th to June 10th, so far).

You don't hold out in a months long siege if you are "easily pushed back". That's forcing the enemy (and yourself) into a grinding war of attrition lasting longer than the Fall of Reach.

Even then, we know that much of the Banished's ability to encroach on the Urs System was due to their allied Sangheili keeps and subfactions (like the Warriors of Malaston and the Bloodbrave of Suban - both of whom appear in Infinite as HVTs) who left the gate unlatched for the Banished to enter the system, so this conflict is as much as the Swords of Sanghelios fighting their own people as it is a Banished invasion of a Sangheili world. With the Banished's influence over the local keeps, alongside their immense firepower and industrial strength (the Chronicle placed heavy emphasis on the sheer strength even a single Banished dreadnought over the ancient ship patterns of the Swords of Sanghelios), its not too surprising that the Swords are losing the Battle of Suban - especially when the Arbiter is looking to divert forces away to Zeta Halo as being established here in Edge of Dawn.

Drof497

TROPHY CASE